Computing and networking technologies have transformed and improved many important aspects of everyday life. For example, various microprocessor-based systems (e.g., desktop computers, laptops, handhelds, PDAs, etc.) have become a staple rather being a luxury, educational tool and/or entertainment center. Such systems can provide users with a mechanism to intelligently, efficiently and economically manage and forecast finances, plan events, control household utilities such as heating, cooling, lighting and security, communicate with others, and store records and images in an essentially permanent medium. Networking technologies (e.g., for intranets, internets and the Internet) can provide users of such microprocessor-based systems with virtually unlimited access to remote systems, information and associated applications from essentially anywhere in the world.
Today's business practices have exploited many of the advantages provided by the continuously evolving computing and networking technologies. For example, a traditional banking transaction can include gathering information such as a bank account number, passbook and identification, dedicating time to travel to the bank, procuring transportation, waiting in line and utilizing a teller to facilitate a banking transaction. Today, a consumer can utilize a personal computer from home to access his/her bank account via the Internet and perform a growing number of available transactions such as balance inquiries, funds transfers, bill payment, on-line credit card applications, mortgage approval, etc. with a click of a mouse button.
In another example, many businesses now provide customers with Web-based product purchasing (e.g., food, clothing, tools, books, etc.), information retrieval (e.g., catalogs, brochures, Web pages, etc.), mail services (e.g., email), nearly real-time technical and customer support (e.g., via instance messaging), interactive gaming, and the like. As incremental advances in computing and networking technologies provide for increased security, bandwidth, data exchange rate and robustness, more and more businesses, consumers, trading partners, subscribers, wholesalers, retailers, entrepreneurs and the like are shifting paradigms and employing computer and network technologies. Thus, many business transactions can be completed by connecting (e.g., via the Internet) to a system that utilizes networked servers and databases, Web sites, and/or on-line services that facilitate the business transaction rather than continuing to rely on traditional business methods.
However, conventional computing and networking systems are susceptible to conditions (e.g., transmission errors and malicious viruses) that can stall and/or terminate a business transaction prior to completion of the transaction. For example, in a typical message publish/retrieval system a network-based connection can be established between a trading partner and a database system with message retrieval capabilities, wherein the trading partner can transmit a message(s) to the database system and/or the database system can retrieve the message(s) from the trading partner. A successfully transferred message(s) can be published, or posted in the database, wherein subscribing systems can access the database and retrieve any published message.
In many instances, message conveyance from the trading partner to the database system can be long-lived and require a reliable connection for a relatively lengthy period of time. Conventionally, when long-lived connections are severed prior to completion of message transfer, message conveyance abruptly terminates. Typically, in order to complete the transaction, another connection has to be established between the trading partner and database system, and message conveyance has to restart. Thus, connection losses in a conventional system can compromise message conveyance reliability. In addition, locking the connection for a relatively long period of time can over-burden a servicing system with processing load.